Old scam artist Frank Kindlon cons new victim, faces new prison time

A career con artist who bilked a woman out of more than $200,000 in a bizarre scheme that included make-believe phone conversations with “judges” faces up to 15 years in prison under a plea deal reached Tuesday.

Frank Kindlon, 69, of Delmar, who served 10 years behind bars for committing the nearly identical scam in the early 1990s, cut the deal as his grand larceny trial was to begin before state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Breslin. He pleaded guilty to the one-count indictment he faced, leaving his fate in the hands of the longtime judge.

Kindlon — a cousin of high-profile Albany defense attorney Terence L. Kindlon — conned the 49-year-old Feura Bush woman into believing his grandson needed money for bail, which was untrue. The woman, who knew Kindlon because her daughter is lifelong best friends with the defendant’s daughter, agreed to fork over $5,300 to him in April 2009, authorities said.

And was the start of a nearly two-year period in which the woman repeatedly handed over money to Kindlon, who convinced the woman her money was being held by the Albany County Court system for “Case No. 3126,” which did not exist.

If the name Frank Kindlon sounds familiar, that’s because in 1993 he was convicted of stealing nearly $1 million from friends and acquaintances — one of whom ended up committing suicide by setting himself on fire.